At first I thought they were more of a curiosty, but have seen some usefullness in an urban setting to see where caches/waypoints are in relation to the buildings. I finally figured how to 'turn them off' while in suburban settings (they are more of a clutter to me then).

I have found these to be extremely valuable in urban settings just like you, and I also turn them off when not caching. There have been a couple of instances where my GPS was wandering in an urban canyon, but the building footprint showed me precisely where along the wall I should look.